Elisabeth Abbatiello speaks quickly as if she were running. A idiom in the image of the growth of Pizza Salvatoré, the restaurant chain she owns with her three brothers and sister.
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She tells me that Canada is the fastest growing catering brand: one opening every two weeks since March 2021!
“We’re starting to feel comfortable with the speed,” says the young entrepreneur, who also gave birth to three girls before she was 30.
Recently, the Abbatiello family were approached by a large group wanting to buy their pizzerias and, like their father before who had received an offer from Pizza Hut, they politely declined. Clearly the family enjoys the adventure and pride in entrepreneurship that comes from their Beauce and Italian roots.
Marcel Tremblay/QMI Agency
Elisabeth’s grandfather immigrated from Italy. In Montreal he married a Quebecer from Saint-Odilon-de-Cranbourne. Then, at a New Year’s party, Salvatore introduced the Beauce family to pizza. Under the spell, she convinced him to open his restaurant. In 1964, for example, he introduced pizza throughout Saint-Georges.
The first Italian in Beauce
“My grandfather was the only Italian in Beauce, he spoke a kind of Franglais Italian and lived with my grandmother and her seven children in an apartment above the restaurant,” says Elisabeth, whose father and an uncle later bought Pizza Salvatoré and then opened it a dozen franchises.
Marcel Tremblay/QMI Agency
Elisabeth has worked in the family business for as long as she can remember and because she does everything quickly, she became a partner at the age of 24 when the third generation took over.
How did everyone find their place in this household of five? She says it just happened and it seems too good to be true, but if this family has a team that can open a restaurant every two weeks, maybe they can also share the roles harmoniously?
Elisabeth has invested in communication and marketing, she is hyperactive on social media, where she conveys a young and dynamic image of the company. In five years, Pizza Salvatoré has grown from 13 to 64 restaurants while going through the shock of the pandemic. But that’s not all: the young shareholders repaid the loan they took out to buy the chain in two years instead of five.
“After that, we were able to start expanding with corporate restaurants. In the beginning we worked 60 to 70 hours a week, the five, the two hands in the business,” says the young woman.
Run to grow
To put it bluntly, opening a restaurant every two weeks means hiring and training 30 to 40 employees each time, in an environment where there is a labor shortage everywhere.
I don’t know what vitamins are in Pizza Salvatoré recipes, but I’m starting to think about magical ingredients! Especially since Elisabeth tells me to eat it nine times a week!
Back to the pandemic. March 2020. Back then, half of the sales went to the Pizza Salvatoré buffets. That’s what closed first. The Abbatiellos didn’t want to lose their employees, so they changed their formula to keep the jobs. The delivery system already existed, we inflated it and with unbeatable promotions we attracted orders.
First week: Total sales fell by 15%. A month later they were up 60%. Pizzeria counter and deliveries: This has become the new business model spreading to Quebec, the Maritimes and soon to Ontario. Don’t we say that unity is strength? This close-knit family appears to want to call it back.
SALVATORE PIZZA
founding year
1964
founder
Salvatore Abbatiello and Angele Fecteau
Headquarters location
Quebec
activity area
Restoration
number of employees
2365
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